Health Care Marketing: The Seventh Circuit Addresses “Referrals” Under The Anti-Kickback Statute
The case, United States v. Sorenson, addressed whether a Medicare-registered distributor violated the AKS in making payments to advertising, marketing, and manufacturing companies that worked to sell orthopedic braces to Medicare patients. The court held that such payments were not “referrals” within the meaning of the AKS because the payments were made to entities that were neither physicians in a position to refer their patients nor other decisionmakers in positions to “leverage fluid, informal power and influence” over health care decisions.
